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Sun news: Sun-stuff and solar wind on the way

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C. Alex Young

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Armando Caussade

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Raúl Cortés

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October 12, 2026

The sun glowing gold in extreme ultraviolet light, with two large dark coronal holes, one central and one southern. — Sun news for October 12, 2026. This video shows 2 large coronal holes on the Earth-facing solar disk over the past day. A coronal hole is a region in the sun’s atmosphere — or corona — where the magnetic field opens out into space and lets fast solar wind escape. Fast wind from these holes, combined with a possible burst of sun-stuff, could bring G1 (minor) geomagnetic storms and auroras tonight. Image via NASA/ SDO.

Sun news October 12: Sun-stuff and solar wind on the way

Today’s top story: A fast blob of sun-stuff — a coronal mass ejection (CME) — could give Earth a glancing blow later today. The sun fired this CME our way during an M6.4 (moderate) flare on Saturday. If it does reach us, it could add to the effects of high-speed solar wind currently streaming to us from a coronal hole. Together, these effects could disturb our magnetic field to G1 (minor) geomagnetic storm levels. In fact, the U.K. Met Office sees a chance of G2 (moderate) or even G3 (strong) levels. Aurora-watchers across the northern U.K, northern U.S. states, southern New Zealand and similar geomagnetic latitudes should stay alert!

Past 24 hours on the sun

(11 UTC October 11 – 11 UTC October 12)

Flare activity: Solar activity stayed at low levels. Observers recorded 8 flares during the period: 6 C-class (common) and 2 B-class (weak).

Strongest flare: A C1.2 from AR4545, peaking at 17:01 UTC on October 11.
Other notable flares: AR4549 contributed a C1.1, peaking at 22:37 UTC on October 11.
Lead flare producer: AR4545 led the list with three C-class flares.

Sunspot regions: Five numbered sunspot regions populated the visible disk, including one newcomer. A sixth, AR4552, decayed to plage.

AR4549 (beta-delta): This region remained the most magnetically complex on the disk. However, it’s getting very close to the western horizon, which is making classification increasingly difficult. It produced only one minor C flare during the period. Still, forecasters consider it the main source of possible M-class and X-class (strong) flares in the days ahead.
AR4545 (beta): This region saw new magnetic field emergence during the period. It was also the most prolific flare producer, firing the strongest flare (C1.2) plus two other C-class events. Even so, analysts noted overall decay in the region.
AR4551 (beta-gamma): This region grew in both size and magnetic complexity. It’s now the largest region on the disk. Despite that growth, it stayed mostly quiet, producing only B-class flares during this window.

Blasts from the sun? Observers detected no new Earth-directed CMEs during the past 24 hours. However, the October 10 CME from AR4549’s M6.4 flare remains of interest.

Past 24 hours in space weather

Solar wind: Solar wind steadily decreased to a little above normal, reflecting the fading effects of the October 10 CME arrivals.

Bt, Bz and magnetic coupling: The total interplanetary magnetic field (Bt) started strong and slowly decreased to moderate, before dropping sharply to near-normal levels. The Bz component pointed northward throughout, limiting geomagnetic coupling.

Earth’s magnetic field: The geomagnetic field started the period at active levels (Kp 4). Conditions then eased to quiet as CME effects waned.

What’s ahead? Sun–Earth forecast

Flare activity forecast: Forecasters expect solar activity to stay at low levels overall. Even so, M-class flares remain likely, at 55% to 65% chance through October 13, mostly thanks to AR4549. A slight chance of X-class flares exists in the same window. By October 14, the M-class probability should drop to about 45% as AR4549 leaves the disk.

Geomagnetic activity forecast:

October 12: Expect quiet-to-unsettled conditions early (Kp 2-3), rising to active levels later in the day. A G1 (minor) storm (Kp 5) is likely as the glancing October 10 CME and the coronal hole high-speed stream arrive together.
October 13: Expect mostly active conditions, with isolated G1 (minor) storming likely as the coronal hole stream persists. The chance of G1 storms (Kp 5) gradually drops, with a slight chance of G2 (moderate, Kp 6). Note that this coronal hole has a negative polarity, which tends to be less effective at stirring geomagnetic storms at this time of year.
October 14: Quiet to unsettled levels (Kp 2-3) should return as the coronal hole’s influence tapers off.

The sun in recent days

The sun in visible light, a pale disk with a few small dark sunspots, each labeled with its active region number. — Here’s today’s sun for October 11, 2026 – with the most active regions labeled – as of 1 UTC this morning, as seen from Udaipur Solar Observatory in India. Image via NSO GONG.

Earlier sun images

Sun images from our community

The sun, seen as a large white sphere with small dark spots. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Patricio León in Santiago, Chile, captured this filtered image on October 11, 2026. Patricio wrote: “A big sunspot group, AR4551, has rotated the eastern limb and is very welcome in a sparsely populated solar face. Quiet day after yesterday’s 6.5 M-class flare and (not related) G3 geomagnetic storm.” Thank you, Patricio!

More sun images from our community

The sun, seen as a large gray sphere with small dark spots. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Hawkes in South Yorkshire, United Kingdom, captured this filtered image on October 11, 2026. David wrote: “This is first light on my new solar rig with the new RVO 80 refractor, sadly I had an issue with the filter but I managed to get this shot before the problem occurred. It many be a while before I get another chance to test.” Thank you, David!

We sometimes feature sun images obtained using hydrogen-alpha filters. Read why.

Bottom line: Sun news, October 12, 2026: A blast of sun-stuff could reach Earth today. It could combine with a fast solar wind stream to trigger geomagnetic storms. Aurora watchers, stay alert!

Submit your photos here.

View community photos here

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October 12, 2026

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Sun

C. Alex Young

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About the Author:

C. Alex Young is a solar astrophysicist studying the Sun and space weather. Alex is passionate about sharing science with diverse audiences. This led him to start The Sun Today with his designer wife, Linda. First through Facebook and Twitter then adding an extensive website thesuntoday.org, the two work together to engage the public about the Sun and its role in our solar system. Alex led national engagement efforts for the 2017 total solar eclipse. He is the Associate Director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Armando Caussade

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About the Author:

Armando is known primarily as an astronomy educator, after 30+ years of extensive public outreach and 10 years teaching in colleges. As one of only a handful of science communicators in Puerto Rico during Comet Halley's last visit, he assumed a pioneering role starting in 1985 when science was just beginning to enter the collective mindset. Over the years, his work as a teacher, speaker and writer, inspired people to pursue interests in science and brought enduring change to Puerto Rican culture. After being accepted into the 2014–2015 Antarctic season of PolarTREC, Armando was assigned to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where in 2015 he successfully conducted 10 days of work at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. His affiliations include Ana G. Méndez University, Cupey campus (2014 to 2021), the University of Puerto Rico, Aguadilla campus (2015 to 2017), NASA JPL's Solar System Ambassadors (2004 to 2006), and NASA Space Grant (2017 to 2019) where he served as an affiliate representative.

Raúl Cortés

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About the Author:

Raúl Cortés studied engineering at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in Monterrey, Mexico, obtained a scholarship to continue his studies in Japan and after returning to Monterrey he got credits on MBA from the Graduate School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Faculty. He became a teacher at the University UANL teaching Math and Physics and dedicated the rest of his professional career to serve in engineering areas for USA, Japan and Germany based corporations. His passion for the skies go back to when he was a child, always intrigued about the stars and constellations and reading and researching about the matter. From 2010 on, he dedicated his attention to photographing the stars, constellations, the moon and the sun. Raúl's work on his photography has been published and posted on the ESC as well as in other platforms and has gained attention to be published by local Monterrey newspapers.